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A DISCOURSE 



OCCASIONED BY THE 




DEATH OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



DELIVERED 



MAY 2, 1841, IN THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 



BY WILLIAM CAREY CRAJVE, A. M 



PUBLISHED BV BEQUEST OF THE CHURCH. 



JHontsomerg: 

l'RINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER. 



1841. 



£| p^ : OV Jfuueral ^Discourse 



ON THE 



LATE PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. HARRISON. 



" How are the mighty fallen, in the midst of the battle ! ! Jonathan, thou wast slain 
in thine high places."— 2d Samuel, 1st Chapter 2bth Verse. 

When Saul and Jonathan were slain in the midst of the battle, he, 
against whom the former cherished the most bitter hatred, and for whom 
the latter entertained the purest and most disinterested friendship, was 
the chief mourner. What, in our language, surpasses in beauty and pa- 
thos, the lamentation he utters—" Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be 
no more dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings, 
for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, 
as though he had not been anointed with oil." The exuberance of Da- 
vid's gnef, best displays itself in the language of the text, " How are the 
mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! O ! Jonathan, thou wast slain in 
thine high places." , . 

On the present occasion, the entire American people, with that distin- 
guished benevolence of heart which has won them a high place in the 
annals of philanthropy, with that disinterested love of country which 
tramples under foot partizan narrowness, and forgets partizan interests in 
love for the whole country, with that enlarged patriotism, which triumphs 
over Roman firmness and Spartan attachment to national fame, mourn 
the untimely decease of the Chief Executive Magistrate. How appro- 
priately can they adopt the language of the mourning prophet and King 
of Israel ! We are met, to-day, as Christians and patriots, not as parti- 
zans ; we are met as citizens of a free and independent Republic, all, all 
equally attached to our country, equally interested in its fame, its glory 
and its prosperity, all equally proud of the honour and incorruptible in- 
tegrity of our statesmen and our orators, our heroes and their deeds, of 
whatever name and to whatever party attached. It is a sublime spectacle 
to behold more than fifteen millions of freemen united in paying the last 
earthly honours to a departed hero, and deploring the loss of him, who, 
as the President of the United States, was the Constitutional protector 
and father of the whole nation. Let such sordid, tyrannizing spirits as 
Metternich, let the rank opponents of civil liberty, let the unbelievers in 
the sublime doctrine of self-government, survey us, now, as a people ; 
how truly will they learn, that however much we may differ among our- 
selves, about measures and phases of principles, we do not differ in love 
of country, attachment to our constituted authorities, and in determina- 
tion, unitedly, to resist oppression and aggression, come from whatever 
quarter they may. That was a noble sentiment, worthy indeed of its dis- 
tinguished author, " We are all republicans, we are all federalists. If 
there be any among us, who would wish to dissolve this Union or to 
change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of 
the safety, with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is 
left free to combat it." Few are the occasions which have called out 



( * ) 

such expressions of grief, as sincerely felt and as candidly expressed, 
from a mighty nation. But all of them have been improved by the he- 
ralds of the gospel, a9 fitting opportunities for making serious impres- 
sions. When, with a coincidence as remarkable as it was affecting, 
Adams ami Jefferson were called from this scene of mortality, on the an- 
niversary of American Independence, which both had contributed to 
render immortal, the nation covered itself with mourning weeds, air 
hearts beat low, and grief burst spontaneously forth from the national 
bosom. From no quarter did more impressive strains of eloquence pro- 
ceed, than from the pulpit. When the fond hope of Britain's sea-girt 
Isle, the lamented Princess Charlotte of Wales was cut off in that hour of 
the highest anticipation, the British pulpit, with its thousand eloquent 
occupants, expressed the people's grief and taught the lessons of piety, 
which so sad an event was well calculated to inspire. " When at the 
funeral of Louis Fourteentb, his favorite chaplain rose up to address the 
vast multitude of nobles and courtiers ; of statesmen and warriors and 
savans ; of scholars and artists ; the proud and acknowledged representa- 
tives of the talent and learning and refinement of France, all clad in the 
deepest mourning, the first sentence of the preacher was, ' There is noth- 
ing great but God 1' and methinks I hear the solemn response from all the 
lonsj drawn aisles of the Cathedral, ' There is nothing meat but God !' 
Kings, Emperors and Presidents ; the proudest rulers of the most enlight- 
ened and powerful States, what are they but dust, with a little breath to 
keep the particles together, and liable every moment to be dissolved and 
scattered."* The Churches of all orders and persuasions, irrespective 
of partizan bias, have resounded with funeral sermons and dirges. The 
religious press every where teems with appropriate allusions to the sol- 
emn event we now contemplate. The youth of our Colleges, uniting with 
their fathers, have passed their resolves. The Associations, Conferences 
and Presbyteries have uttered the voice of their constituents, in their ex- 
pressions of mourning over our national loss. Legislatures bave adjourn- 
ncd, some for reflection, and one (the Legislature of Maine) adjourned to 
repair to a suitable; place of worship, to offer prayer to the superintend- 
ing Deity of the universe; and the primary assemblies of the people have 
returned the echo of wailing from hill to bill, from State to State, and 
from coast to coast. The nation has been paralyzed for a moment, — 
hardly a man breathed, sighs heaved every bosom and all countenances 
seemed to say, "Alas ! my brother." 

With the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Washington City, we adopt 
the language, " That while we, in common with the people of this coun- 
try, mourn over the great and unexpected loss which our City and Nation 
have sustained, in the death <>;' our late venerated President, we bow 
as Christians to the will of our heavenly Father, saying, ' The Lord gave 
and the Lord taketb away, blessed be the name of the Lord.' ' Unbe- 
lievers in the pure gospel of Jesus Christ allege, that it is defective, in 
not inculcating the virtues of patriotism and friendship. To this allega- 
tion, we way briefly reply, that the most earnest injunctions are made 
upon Chi istians to obey, their rulers, and the relationship subsisting be- 
tween a Christian people and the government, under which they live, 
is so perspicuously pointed out, as to leave little doubt that patriotism 
and friendship were intended to be the result of a ready acquiescence in 
tin; requirements of a just government. The danger in all merely polit- 
ical matters is, that our zeal for our country and our adherence to its iu- 

• Dr. Humphrey's Address, delivered April 8lh, al Amherst, Mas?. 



( 3 ) 

terosts, is apt to occupy all our attention, and absorb our aflections, inclin- 
ing us to a forgetfulness of personal welfare and the neglect of the higher 
claims of piety and justice. Patriotism may degenerate into a species of 
idolatry. The Roman Republic was the idol of the people, and the great- 
est statesmen were 'prepared to offer the costliest oblation?, the most ex- 
pensive sacrifices, and even " whole hetacombs of human victims" on the 
altar of their liberties. And numerous have been the savage deeds of 
darkness which have disgraced the name and the character of man, under 
the false pretence of subserving the interests and claims of universal 
freedom. Whether it ever may be the case with the American people, 
that their patriotism and their love for their great men, shall induce in 
them a forgetfulness of private interest and a neglect of the rights of other 
nations, is not clear to our apprehension. The sentiments of piety and 
friendship, elicited by the event of a President's decease, while in office, 
has confirmed republicans in their confidence in democratic institutions 
and the general stability of civil and religious liberty. Long distant may 
that day be, when he, who records our rise, progress and maturity as a 
nation, shall say of us, in the language of the Mantuan bard, " Ilium fuit." 
No longer to divert your attention from more appropriate considerations, 
permit me to offer some reflections more suitable to the event which, as 
a people, we deplore. Three alternatives are presented to me, either 
(1,) not to speak of the character of the late President at all, which, or> 
such an occasion would be impossible ; (2,) to speak disparagingly of 
him ; or (3,) to speak well of him. As the shaft of calumny cannot follow 
him whither he is gone, nor the voice of flattery place him higher in the 
people's estimation, I choose to speak well of him. The dignity and sa- 
credness of this office, the responsibilities of such a place as I occupy, 
as well as the relation you sustain to one another and to me, will save 
me from the imputation of a partizan bearing or a political motives. God 
forbid? I know not your politics, I enquire not. As a minister and a 
Christian, I tiust I shall never desecrate my office by an association of 
the mere demagogue with the care of a flock who are all equally the ob- 
jects of attention and solicitude. 

The late President was not a mere party officer, though his election 
may have been haded as a partizan triumph. He was the President of 
the United States, the people's President, the poor man's President, the 
rich man's President, he was my President, and he was your President. 
That President, whose name, but yesterday, was the acclamation of mil- 
lions, is dead. One month, he is a plain, old fashioned country farmer, 
on the banks of the noble Ohio, one of the humblest of the people, a 
democratic sovereign of this Republic, living peaceably under the ad- 
ministration of another President, and illustrating the wisdom and beauty 
of our free institutions, in the propriety with which men, in the humblest 
spheres of life, may aspire to the highest offices in the gift of the people. 
The next month, before forty thousand people, he is proclaimed the ruler 
of twenty-six free States, embracing all the varieties of colour, character 
and interests of men, extending through diversified soils and climates, — 
the ruler of a Confederacy, than tvhich the sun shines on no other like it. 
From an humble rank in military life, after a long series of public ser- 
vices, he is elevated to the highest place known to his government, and 
hardly had the intelligence of his inauguration gone abroad; hardly had 
the address he delivered been read by the entire nation, than, in less than 
a month, a higher authority, the President of the Universe, decrees, that 
the people no longer shall have the President of their choice, the idol of 
the multitude; but that another; by his will and favour, shall stand at the 



( 6 ) 

helm of state. What a change hoth to ruler and ruled, — the people of 
the West and the North, the East and the South, hear the sad intelli- 
gence : " it strikes upon the ear like the sound of a mighty oak falling in 
the stillness of the forest," and " an universal sadness, like the cloud that 
heralds forth the imminent tempest, spreads itself ever the whole mass 
of the nation, from the dark streams of Maine to the waters of Mexico." 
Well did the Latin poet affirm, " that death knocks with equal pace at 
the door of cottages and the palaces of kings" — 



" Not glittering line 

Of guards, in pompous mail arrayed, 
Bastion, or moated wall, or mound, 

Or palisade, 
Or covered trench, socure and deep, 
All these cannot one victim keep 

Oh ! Death ! from thee, 
When thou dost battle in thy wrath, 
And thy strong shafts pursue their path 

Unerringly." 

Death loves a shining mark, and none escape the unerring aim of the 
insatiate archer. The hero, " the gloom of whose glory arose and o'er- 
shadowed the land of his birth," who had been the agent of the slaughter 
of nearly five millions, the conqueror of the known world, the discover- 
er of this great continent, and the Father of his country, all, have died, and 
the last President is now, one of the gems, in that constellation of stars, 
which glitter in the diadem of the great King of Terrors. How remark- 
able was his life, and how forcible a proof in favour of the doctrine of spe- 
cial, divine providence. The cold winters of the rude north, the Indian 
tomahawk, and the British arms had never harmed him. Through dan- 
ger, seen and unseen, he passed uninjured and unhurt. He was permit- 
ted, like Moses, to journey safely through the perils of the wilderness, 
and from the mountain height, on the inside border of the land of pro- 
mise, he beheld the glory of his country, and died. His was a " life 
long enough for glory, but, alas ! too short for hope." The late Pre- 
sident was a philanthropist. Thousands attest the benevolence of his 
character, and volumes could be exhausted in the detail of anecdotes, 
illustrative of the general goodness of his heart. You are familiar 
with them all. Probably, no man in the country exemplified so well 
the native graces of a pure heart. He was a hero. The history of his 
country records his military ardor, his skill in battle, and the achieve- 
ments of the armies under his command. He was a brave man ! Im- 
partial history will attest his courage, and whatever may have been his 
errors of judgment, surely he cannot be denied the character of a cour- 
ageous soldier. He was a statesman, who, in every relation which he 
sustained to the people, manifested incorruptible integrity. He was an 
orator. There are few specimens of American eloquence which surpass 
the eulogy upon Kosciusko and the just tribute to the fame and character 
of General Brown. He was devotedly attached to the Constitution, 
which he profoundly studied, and his dying words exemplify his ardent 
desire for its preservation and proper administration. He was a well 
read man. In the year 1S3S, he piepared, at the request of the Histori- 
cal Society of Ohio, a " Discouse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the 
Ohio ;" speaking of which, the North American Review holds the follow- 
ing language : " There are certainly but few individuals, whose life, from 
early youth, has been passed in the arduous active service of the field, 
and in maturer years amidst the labors and cares of high and responsible 
official station, who could sustain, with more credit, a discussion like that 



( 7 ) 

contained in the pages under review." His Inaugural Address, whatever 
may be bw said of the politics incidentally embraced in it, ceitainly ex- 
hibits correctness of moral feeling and a strong attachment to principle. 
It is true, that the allusions to Greece and Rome are rather too frequent 
for the kind of document which should emanate from an executive head 
of the nation, yet we cannot fail to admire the truly classic bent of the 
illustrious author's mind. Certainly r:othing can be more appropriate 
than his rebuke to party spirit: " It was the beautiful remark of a distin- 
guished English writer, that, ' in the Roman Senate, Octavius had a party, 
and Anthony a party, but the Commonwealth had none.' " And in the 
letter written in answer to the Committee who invited him to a dinner 
given to his friend and companion in arms, Gen. Solomon Van Renssa- 
laer, how clear his perception of the refinements of language, in the quo- 
tatio from Castalio : — 

" When had I a friend that was not Polydore's, 
Or Polydore a foe that was not mine?" 

The late President was a magnanimous man, he stooped not to the little- 
ness of prejuidice, nor did he allow his feelings to subdue his reason. 
However much we may disagree as to the qualities of his mind, or his 
ability to govern this people, we will at least concede, that he was a great 
man. His generosity, goodness, courage, faithfulness in the execution of 
confided trusts, all made him great. His high office, more than all things 
else, made him great; but he was pre-eminantly great in his honest pur- 
poses. I am thus particular, in dwelling upon these characteristics, be- 
cause I desire to subserve the interests of religion, by showing that so 
great a man as the late President of the United States, was a Christian. 
Rev. Mr. Hawley 's " Notitia" of the last scenes of his life, leave little doubt 
that he confided in Jesus Christ, as the only hope of salvation. His con- 
stant perusal of the Scriptures, is a lesson to feeble minds. Proud and self- 
conceited men disdain the idea of a necessity that their lives should quad- 
rate with the strict precepts of the Bible. Weak intellects despise religion, 
and impious spirits scoff at the Christian System, but here we have the re- 
markable instance of the highest officer of a nation, worshipping God on 
his knees, and daily learning the lessons of piety from an inspired page. 
It is no compliment to the Bible, that the late President constantly read 
it; nor did his confidence in Jesus Christ make the gospel at all more 
honorable, but it is a rebuke to lesser lights, who scorn to be seen perus- 
ing the book of God, and who seldom, if ever, worship God in his sanc- 
tuary. To the catalogue of great names, which have adorned the records 
of the Christian Church, may now be added that of the late Chief Ma- 
gistrate of this Union. It is too much the case, that a people who love a 
brave chieftain, lavish their affections upon that Chief. A portion of the 
people thought too much of their late Chief and too little of their God, 
and another portion were as guilty in relation to another Chief. Is it 
not, therefore, a just cause for enquiry, whether God has not designed, 
by removing our Chief Magistrate thus early from us, to remind us of 
our national transgressions, our personal sins, and the uncertainty of all 
things human ] As a nation, we have sinned. Cruelty has been allowed 
to go unpunished, offenders have not been brought to justice, public en- 
actments have not always secured the general good, the Sabbath has been 
deseciated, our rulers have made political harangues, and Congress has 
transacted business on the Lord's day, the benefactors of the country 
have not been rewarded, party spirit has raged too high, much to the de- 
triment of virtue and religion, and love of men has begun to supplant 
loye of principles. These are among our sins as a nation : as citizens, 



( io ) 

state 1 They are all immortal. Washington is gone, Jefferson is gone, 
Madison is gone, Monroe is gone, and Harrison is gone, and soon, God 
only knows how soon, the toll of the muffled bell, the minute gun, the 
solemn dirge and funeral strain will tell us that the Hero of New Orleans 
has gone, his successor has gone, and Tyler gone, all gone, " whence no 
traveller returns." Our fathers, too, they must soon die; our dear compan- 
ions ! they must soon leave us ; our prattling children, whom we have dan- 
dled on our knees, they will soon grow to manhood, and die too. Let us 
prepare to die. If prepared, death will have no terror, when the message 
comes that bids us go hence. Calmly folding our arms, and laying our- 
selves upon our beds, may we rest our weary souls, until the visions of a 
brighter sphere shall burst upon our sight, and the anthems of a regene- 
rated world awake our hearts to heavenly melody. It is glorious, as well 
as consoling, to reflect, that natural religion and revelation conspire in 
harmony to teach the resurrection of the body. The dead have been 
raised, the unchanged bodies of Enoch and Elijah have already gone to 
Heaven, and surely the power of that God, who raised the dead from their 
graves in the sad hour of the crucifixion, is still sufficient to raise all our 
mortal bodies. In view of this truth, the christian may joyously exclaim, 
" Oh ! death, where is thy sting ! Oh ! grave, where is thy victory !" 

" But he, the patriot hero, who hath gone 
In bright, untarnished glory to his rest, 
Green shall his fame be, as the years roll on, 
Pure as the snow flake on the mountain's cre6t. 
Bright as yon star that trembles in the west, 
This grave shall be a holy shrine, and there, 
When the fair earth like a young bride is dreat, 
Leading our little ones, will we repair, 
And to the God of nations lift our fervent prayer." 

I cannot better close this service, than by quoting the impressive lan- 
guage of the prophet Isaiah, which was so deeply rivetted, in his last 
hours, upon the mind of him whose decease we lament, — " The bur- 
den of Dumah. Ho calleth to me out of Seir. Watchman, what of the 
night ? Watchman, what of the night ? The Watchman said, the morn- 
ing cometh, and also the night ; if ye will inquire, inquire ye ; return, 
come." Amen. 

























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